Baalbek (Heliopolis)

Temple of Jupiter: Propylaea

Inscription CIL 3.138.

The Propylaeae (a technical expression for the access gate to an
ancient sanctuary) of the temple of
Jupiter in Baalbek
were planned in the second quarter of the second century, but completed
in the first half of the third century CE. They consist of a monumental
stairs, leading to the terrace, and a portico with twelve tall columns
of Egyptian granite. Three of these have bases with inscriptions that
mention the emperor Caracalla
(CIL, 3.138). Fifty meters wide and twelve meters deep, the portico can
only have been covered by a ceiling made of cedar wood.

The Propyalaea

Southern guard room

Northern guard room

Part of the decoration

The
original staircase, fifty meters wide, was demolished when, in the
age of the Crusades, the sanctuary was converted into a fortress. The
present stairs were added in 1905 by the German emperor Wilhelm II, who
had ordered the first excavations after he had visited Baalbek in 1898.
(His name has been cut into one of the
walls of the temple of Bacchus.)

To the north and south of the staircase were two towers, which may have
been used by the temple guard that kept an eye on the people who,
through the Propylaea, walked to the Hexagonal court. A raised
threshold served as a boundary between the profane and the sacred.